March 2009 Cover Story – Exclusive interview with Bjorn of Soilwork
AAMM: You’ve been fortunate enough to tour the U.S. for quite a bit. How has your experience changed from the first time you toured to now?
Bjorn: Well, the dollar rate. I remember our first tour was in 2002 so the dollar had a lot more worth so we came with a lot more money. Other than that, I don’t really see a lot of change, but probably because I spend a lot time here. I’m usually in Phoenix. I haven’t really thought about it and it’s all the same to me, aside that people are poorer.
AAMM: As far Soilwork goes, how do you see the progress of the band from earlier stuff to the latest album?
Bjorn: I think it’s been natural step for us to work with a lot melodies even though back in the day it was the guitars that took care most of the melodies, now the voice is taking care of a lot of that. I believe we are going to start going back into that intensity of earlier album. I will still sing as much melodic vocals as i do now, but it will be more aggressive. You know we had good balance in Natural Born Chaos. We are not going to do Natural Born Chaos part two but kind of capture that balance again.
AAMM: The band has gone through numerous lineup changes. Yet, the sound of Soilwork remains pretty constant through out. How do you guys manage this?
Bjorn: Well, we been part of this band for such a long time that we just kind of had that vision, you know, what soilwork is. It feels defenitely like Soilwork for real, now that Peter is back. I mean, there will be always people saying Soilwork’s best lineup is this one or that one. But it definitely this is it, and Sylvain i think is going to complete the lineup in a very good way. You know, Shredfest 2009!
AAMM: What was one of the reasons for Peter to leave the band and how did you guys decided to bring him back?
Bjorn: He was just fed up with touring, he was almost hitting a wall and i guess he needed those three years. The plan wasn’t for him to come back. He made the right decision back then and sort of settle down with family and everything. He’s a much happier person now. We stayed in touch after he quit the band, maybe do a side project. But then again, we always want to do something 100% so we started talking about the possibility of him coming back to the band. So we kinda like the idea so it was like cool let’s do it.
AAMM: All the Soilwork albums are about 2 to 3 years apart. The Great Divine has been out for a long while. When can we expect new Soilwork?
For the complete story ya gotta get the magazine!
Interview by: Carlos Vila for All Access Music Magazine
March 2009 Issue
Metallica is less than two weeks away from its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the band has confirmed that former bassist Jason Newsted will attend the ceremony. Guitarist Kirk Hammett told us that Newsted will perform with the group at the event as well, “Jason Newsted will be there, and he will be playing with us at one point. We went as a band when Black Sabbath was being inducted, and at that time Blondie was also being inducted that night. And there was so many politics and so much drama that, you know, we collectively said to each other, ‘We don’t want any of that,’ because it kind of, it puts a really bad, sour note on the whole celebration itself.”